Pirates, hijackers and heroes: Mythical

by Mark Silva

Now Americans have another tale of defiance to rally around:

The American crew of the Danish-owned container ship Alabama - like the Americans aboard United Airlines Flight 93: "Let's roll'' - who took their fate into their own hands, fending off the pirates who attempted to commandeer their vessel.

Like Chesley "Sully'' Sullenberger, the celebrated pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 who glided his disabled airliner on to the wintry surface of the Hudson River, saving all 155 aboard.

They become instant heroes in the lore of a nation that worships heroism, and they also beg the question: WWGD - what would the government do, what could the government have done, if these people had not done what they did?

What would the government have done about the airliner that left Newark bound for San Francisco on the morning Sept. 11, 2001, but hijacked in a terrorist-orchestrated attack that already had struck the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside of Washington, if Todd Beamer and other passengers aboard had not rushed the hijackers and forced the aircraft down, crashing into a field in Pennsylvania and killing all 40 passengers and crew members and the four hijackers aboard?

Shot it down, most likely.

What would the government have done if the 20-member crew of the Maersk Alabama, attacked off the coast of Somalia as it carried humanitarian aid to Mombasa -- the first U.S.-flagged ship boarded by pirates off Africa in more than 200 year - had not moved - unarmed, the ship's owner maintains - against the pirates, forcing them to flee in an unpowered lifeboat, taking the captain hostage.

Couldn't have shot at it.

Navy P-3 surveillance planes were monitoring the troubled vessel, and the U.S. destroyer Bainbridge was en route after the attack, according to the Navy, but what would it have done once it got there?

Alabama Captain Richard Phillips "offered himself as hostage,'' his sister-in-law says. "It's just who he is,'' Gina Coggio said of the 55-year-old mariner from the mountain town of Underhill, Vt., who apparently became the bargaining chip in the freeing of his ship after the crew captured one of the pirates. With the U.S. warship on the scene before dawn today, and monitoring the situation, crew members were said to be negotiating by radio with four pirates in the lifeboat seeking ransom for the captain's return.

What could the government have done about "Sully's'' aircraft, disabled by birds in the engines after takeoff from New York? There was no runway within reach of the falling aircraft, the seasoned pilot surmised, calmly turning toward the river.

Nothing.

The government could have done nothing, perhaps very little or perhaps the unthinkable in the sagas of recent years that have elevated simple Americans to a certain citizens' pantheon.

Which is what makes them heroes, larger than life.

And welcome, at a time when government seems to be able to do little of anything effective about one of the greatest challenges facing Americans today, an economic crisis for which there is no lifeboat, no safe landing in sight.

Except patience, perseverance and good old defiance.

(US Airways Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, pictured at top, throws the ceremonial first pitch for the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs on April 4 at Yankee Stadium, photo by Nick Laham / Getty Images. Todd Beamer, passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93, is pictured in a family photo. The destroyer Bainbridge, which responded to the Maersk Alabama situation, is pictured in a Navy file photo.)